Julianne Moore and Idris Elba support literacy campaign

Stars including Julianne Moore, Idris Elba and Elton John have joined a social media campaign to promote the importance of literacy.

The public figures, including Sting, comedian Russell Brand, actress Taylor Schilling and Olympian Usain Bolt, have teamed up with global campaign Project Literacy to mark the 50th International Literacy Day on Thursday (08Sep16) by sharing the impacts illiteracy can have around the world on social media.

In the run-up to the day, 26 celebrities have picked a letter of the alphabet which corresponds to a cause they are passionate about, from AIDS to drug abuse - problems which are partially worsened by a lack of reading skills. They have released a poster for their cause on Twitter to collectively create The Alphabet of Illiteracy.

Julianne picked "L is for Life Expectancy" and shared the poster, which reads, "Reading and writing can help people understand critical information about their health which can lengthen their lives." In the caption, she adds, "I'm working with #ProjectLiteracy to raise awareness. Please RT (retweet)."

Idris chose R for Radicalisation, AIDs awareness supporter Elton picked A is for AIDs while Russell promote D is for drug abuse, an issue he has personal experience with.

British model Lily Cole launched the Alphabet of Illiteracy in February (16) when she gave an impassioned speech in England's House of Commons calling on politicians to do more to reduce the number of illiterate people in the country.

"A is for AIDS, because if you can't read or write you are five times less likely to understand how people contract HIV," Lily told U.K. Members of Parliament (MPs) in her speech. "B is for bloodshed, because the rate of violent crimes such as murder and sexual assaults is almost double among the illiterate population. C is for child brides, because if all women had a primary education, child marriages would reduce by a sixth."